That's Entertainment (The Jam song)

Although never released as a domestic single in the UK during the band's lifetime, "That's Entertainment" nonetheless charted as an import single (backed by a live version of "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight"), peaking at No. 21.^[1] It was given its first full UK release in 1983 and peaked at No. 60. A second reissue in 1991 also made the top 50.^[1]

The song remains one of the two all-time biggest selling import singles in the UK, alongside The Jam's "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?", which hit the charts at number eight as an import in 1982.^[1]

Song profile

"That's Entertainment" is the group's lone entry, at No.306, on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list released in 2004. It consistently makes similar British lists of all-time great songs, such as BBC Radio 2's "Sold on Song" 2004 Top 100, at No.43.^[2]

The song uses an almost entirely acoustic arrangement with only very light percussion. Like much of Sound Affects, the song has strong undercurrents of pop-psychedelia. The only electric guitar part in the song is played backwards over one of the verses, a hallmark of psychedelia.

The minimalist, slice-of-life lyrics list various conditions of British working class life. The first verse:

A police car and a screaming siren
Pneumatic drill and ripped-up concrete
A baby wailing, stray dog howling
The screech of brakes and lamp light blinking

culminating in the laconic and ironic chorus of "That's entertainment, That's entertainment"

"I was in London by the time I wrote 'That's Entertainment'," said Weller, "writing it was easy in a sense because all those images were at hand, around me."^[3] In an interview with Absolute Radio he said: "I wrote it in 10 mins flat, whilst under the influence, I'd had a few but some songs just write themselves. It was easy to write, I drew on everything around me."^[4]

Notes

1 2 3 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 277. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
↑ "Radio 2 Sold on Song homepage". BBC. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
↑ The Guardian, 16 March 2009
↑ Absolute Radio, 30 June 2013

External links

"That's Entertainment" – Song and discussion at BBC
Paul Weller Official site
That's Entertainment at AllMusic

The Jam

Paul Weller Rick Buckler Bruce Foxton Steve Brookes Dave Waller

Studio albums	In the City This Is the Modern World All Mod Cons Setting Sons Sound Affects The Gift

Live albums	Dig the New Breed Live Jam The Jam at the BBC Fire And Skill - The Jam Live

Compilations	Snap! Greatest Hits Extras Collection Direction Reaction Creation The Very Best of The Jam 45 rpm: The Singles, 1977-1979 45 rpm: The Singles, 1980–1982 The Sound of the Jam

Singles	"In the City" "All Around the World" "The Modern World" "News of the World" "David Watts" "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" "Strange Town" "When You're Young" "The Eton Rifles" "Going Underground" / "Dreams of Children" "Start!" "That's Entertainment" "Funeral Pyre" "Absolute Beginners" "Town Called Malice" / "Precious" "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?" "The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had to Swallow)" "Beat Surrender"

Related articles	Discography Fire and Skill: The Songs of the Jam Mod revival Polydor Records The Style Council The Merton Parkas Vic Coppersmith-Heaven

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